This invention relates to athletic equipment and more specifically, to a soccer rebounding wall.
The number of youth soccer players in the United States has doubled, to over four million players since 1990, according to the United States Soccer Federation. At the same time, the number of high school soccer players has more than doubled since 1990, to 730,106 athletes, the fastest growth rate among any major sport, according to statistics compiled by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. This has lead to an increase in the interest level for devices and equipment, to better train players of the sport.
For some of the training, rebounders are used. For example, elastic nets to rebound balls or shapes with vertical walls that are made of materials that are either unspecified or are excessively heavy. The elastic net rebounders function in a different manner and are usually used for passing and returning the ball in the air, not along the ground surface. Sometimes, a vertical wall can be used to rebound a ball.
A problem with elastic net rebounders is that they are generally limited to the passing and returning of the ball in the air. In soccer, their primary purpose is to either return a soccer ball after a kick to avoid having to collect the balls from a typical goal or to work on aerial control of the soccer ball as it is returned to the player in the air. Elastic net rebounders do not provide any training for passing along the ground.
Rebounders with vertical walls are either excessively heavy (in order to have sufficient mass to achieve appropriate rebound effects). As a result of the weight, the vertical wall rebounders are excessively heavy and impractical for regular use by coaches during practices. They also do not provide rebound characteristic comparable to a ball being struck against a wall.
Therefore, an improved soccer rebounding structure is needed.